Chapter 34

“Fuck!” I muttered under my breath at the interruption, my body heaving like buckets of ice cold and scalding hot water had been emptied over my head.

My heart threatened to burst out of my rib cage as I saw my mother approaching, but she was laughing at something Daniel said, so she wasn’t look our way.

My eyes widened when I turned back to Chase, but faster than I could blink, he pulled up his pants right at the same time my mother turned to him.

I cleared my throat, and pushed my disheveled hair behind my ears. I felt my mother’s eyes moving between Chase and I, but I categorically avoided her gaze, lest my eyes have away what I just did.

“Meredith,” Chase was the one to break the awkward silence, and I didn’t need to look at him to know he had a smirk on his lips. “My brother seems to be doing a fine job taking care of you, isn’t he?”

My mother’s soft laughter carried through the space, and she told Chase how right he was.

From the tone of her voice, she neither saw nor suspected